Microsoft is Officially Killing IE 6 - NOW

[SiberianHuskey]

Microsoft is killing IE6 Fast

[paul_wilkins]

Microsoft is killing IE6 Fast

"Now" though? They're going to start doing it next month.

[ralph.m]

Microsoft says next month it will start to upgrade Windows customers automatically to the latest version of IE available for their computer.

OMG, did I just read that right? Has Microsoft finally discovered the 21st Century? Wow ... I'm truly amazed. (I swore I'd never take IE seriously until MS took this step, and now I'm swearing in amazement that it's happened.)

[felgall]

The origiinal statement is slightly incorrect - it should read IE7 rather than IE6 since they already announced the death of IE6 some time ago and the proposed action will upgrade all XP users to IE8 and all Vista/7 users to IE9.

[SiberianHuskey]

"Now" though? They're going to start doing it next month.

You took it literally

[kohoutek]

Microsoft says next month it will start to upgrade Windows customers automatically to the latest version of IE available for their computer.

Wow....

[cheesedude]

OMG, did I just read that right? Has Microsoft finally discovered the 21st Century? Wow ... I'm truly amazed. (I swore I'd never take IE seriously until MS took this step, and now I'm swearing in amazement that it's happened.)

Microsoft has been strongly encouraging people to dump IE6 for years now. The problem is that some corporations refuse to upgrade and webmasters refuse to dump support for IE6.

If webmasters didn't support IE6, people would have no choice but to upgrade. According the graphic in the news story provided by the original poster, only 1% of web surfers are using IE6 in the United States.

If ever there was a final point for webmasters to make a decision to stop supporting IE6 now is it!

About Microsoft's automatically upgrading IE6 without the computer owner's consent, this was said:

"This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward," wrote Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager of Internet Explorer business and marketing, on a company blog.

If more webmasters felt that way--especially around here at Sitepoint where many insist on supporting IE6--that buggy, insecure browser may have died off years earlier.

If webmasters want the web to move forward--and I'm sure most around here do--the first step is to not support ancient browsers. Otherwise, the web will move forward at a snail's pace.

[SiberianHuskey]

Well IE6 is dead, soon I suspect IE7 then things will be more even with IE8 +.

[Stevie D]

Quite why there would be anyone who this decision will actually affect escapes me. Anyone who is already using Windows XP but still runs IE6 must be totally bonkers for a start, given that they could upgrade to IE7 or IE8. The vast majority of people who still struggle on with IE6 are (a) still using Windows 2000, but MS hasn't deigned to make a browser for that OS since IE6, so they are left high and dry, or (b) on a locked down corporate network, where the sysadmin holds the key and no changes can be made without his/her say-so ... but given all the publicity around IE6/7/8, I'd question the sanity and suitability of any sysadmin still enforcing IE6 unless they also are still stuck on Windows 2000.

[SiberianHuskey]

China is still the dominate country using IE6. I guess the government including the US doesn't think much of them. And in the rest of the world they don't think much of us that is why every U.I is condescending.

[Force Flow]

Some government or corporate users are locked in to specific versions of IE due to the intranet webapps they use. That has always been the big thing that has held back the advancement of IE.

[cheesedude]

Some government or corporate users are locked in to specific versions of IE due to the intranet webapps they use. That has always been the big thing that has held back the advancement of IE.

Businesses or governments can install other browsers that are more modern and standards-compliant for web browsing and keep their ancient browser for internal use.

IE6 lived as long as it did because webmasters supported it. If nothing worked right in IE6, people would have had no choice but to upgrade.

[Stevie D]

IE6 lived as long as it did because webmasters supported it. If nothing worked right in IE6, people would have had no choice but to upgrade.

Let's not get carried away here. I've never "supported" IE6 on any of my websites, not even the ones I designed ten years ago. I've always written in HTML and CSS with a smattering of bug fixes thrown in for good measure in the early days. But none the more for that, those websites are at least usable in IE6, and in many cases fully functional and don't have anything major wrong with the way they look or work. It isn't always about "supporting" IE6, as though webmasters are making a conscious decision to do so – if you don't need a fancy complicated layout then straight-forward HTML and CSS will be "supported" by IE6. I am certainly not going to sabotage my websites just to make sure that IE6 users can't use it!

[molona]

People should jump to IE9 directly... shame that it doesn't work in all OSes but finally! even Microsoft is getting rid of IE6. Halleluya!

[paul_wilkins]

People should jump to IE9 directly... shame that it doesn't work in all OSes but finally! even Microsoft is getting rid of IE6. Halleluya!

There are people who by choice will be sticking with XP until MS stops supporting in in three years time.
IE8 is the best from Microsoft that XP is allowed to use, so IE8 will still be around for some time to come.

[ScallioXTX]

There are people who by choice will be sticking with XP until MS stops supporting in in three years time.
IE8 is the best from Microsoft that XP is allowed to use, so IE8 will still be around for some time to come.

Indeed. IE8 will be the new IE6.

IE is dead, long live IE

[molona]

There are people who by choice will be sticking with XP until MS stops supporting in in three years time.
IE8 is the best from Microsoft that XP is allowed to use, so IE8 will still be around for some time to come.

Trust me. I understand the feeling. My old tower will be keeping xp forever... but it is a shame that I cannot upgrade it to IE9.

Of course, it is natural that at some point things will not be able to work in XP because... well, the world evolves and so should software

[SiberianHuskey]

Off Topic:

It doesn't appear the world is evolving, rather backwards

[William.ah]

China is still the dominate country using IE6.

yea and I bet 90% of them used are pirate version

[kohoutek]

yea and I bet 90% of them used are pirate version

Why would they use a pirated version of something that's free?

[paul_wilkins]

Why would they use a pirated version of something that's free?

It may be the entire OS that is being spoken of.

[Cythes]

I personally feel M$ should kill off IE anyway. Or at least make an effort to keep it on par with FF or Chrome. (Which I will vow by Chrome till the day I die lol)

[ralph.m]

Or at least make an effort to keep it on par with FF or Chrome.

They are doing that, aren't they?

[ScallioXTX]

They are doing that, aren't they?

IE9+ are only supported on win7+ whereas AFAIK Chrome and FF also still run on XP (and *nix and mac for that matter), so no, not really.
It looks like it, but it's not really so. Got windows XP? Sorry, IE8 is the end station for you. Too bad.

And that while XP hasn't even come end of life yet. Just stop supporting it why don't you, it's not like people have to pay for your OS. Oh wait, they do!

You know the song "Every day I love you less and less" by the Kaiserchiefs? That.

</rant>

[ralph.m]

IE9+ are only supported on win7+

Yes, fair point. IE8 isn't too bad CSS-wise, but the lack of support for IE9 in XP is amazing, really. I don't get MS at all. Why does their OS cost around $300? Crikey, the Mac OS (which is better) costs about a tenth of that.